Item 6B. Strategy to Address the Phasing Out of the Penny
Superintendent's Recommendation:
NO ACTION REQUIRED; THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Prepared By: Shaan Hamilton, Chief Financial Officer
Background:
The United States Treasury Department discontinued the production of new pennies for circulation in the United States on November 12, 2025. The Federal Reserve will continue to distribute their inventory of pennies to banks, and banks will process requests for pennies until their supply runs out. Staff do not know exactly when pennies will no longer be available, but seek to proactively manage this change for all Three Rivers Park District point-of-sale locations as soon as possible.
Recommendations for Pricing Changes
To address this challenge, the Superintendent and staff plan to implement a strategy that would change all pricing to include both the core price and the sales tax in the total price, and then round the total price to avoid penny transactions.
- Specifically, for all annual and day passes, such as for cross-country skiing, archery, boat trailers, disc golf, horse trails, photography, and snowmobile trailers, the current plan is to round the total cost including sales tax to a whole dollar amount, thereby eliminating the need to have transactions with pennies.
- For all facilities rentals, the plan is to round the total cost including sales tax to a whole dollar amount.
- For all equipment rentals and inventory items, the plan is to round the total cost including sales tax to the nearest $0.25 unless the item is exempt from sales tax, such as clothing.
Timeline
The current plan is to have new pricing implemented in mid to late March. From a communications perspective, changes about pricing would be posted on the Three Rivers Park District public website and physical signage would be updated at park locations.
Relationship to the System Plan:
The Request for Action supports the following goal(s) of the System Plan:
Goal 2: Parks Matter
Goal 3: Lead by Example
by managing the Park District's financial affairs in a fiscally responsible manner.
